Body of Zambian student Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, who was killed in the war with Ukraine aged 23, has been flown home, Associated Press reports.
On Sunday, his body arrived in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital.
Nyirenda arrived in Russia in 2019 to study in Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. He got a job as a delivery person to earn extra money. In 2020, the man was detained after drugs were found in a parcel that he was delivering. Nyirenda was subsequently sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in prison.
Nyirenda’s sister claims that he last called his family on 31 October.
“He then told his parents: ‘I am no longer in prison but where I am now is a secret’. My parents and all of us were concerned about this. We knew that he was a convict in a foreign country where he had no rights, we were very worried about what was happening. But he could not share any details and the parents did not press him,” she said.
Later, PMC Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin confirmed that Nyirenda had been recruited to join his military company. He said he remembered speaking with the Zambian student and asked him this question: “Why do you need this war?”
“You, Russians, helped us, Africans, to gain independence for many years. When it was tough for us, you extended a helping hand and continue to do so now. PMC Wagner is saving thousands of African lives and if I join you in this war, it is possibly the least I can do to pay you back. And if I survive, I will learn to fight for my home country. And another thing, I only heard rumours about [PMC] Wagner but I can become one of you,” Prigozhin claims Nyirenda told him.
